O Positive's Brian Billow Talks Bears, Bruises and Whiskey

Director Brian Billow is a funny guy. So is actor Gabriel Macht, best known as Harvey Specter in the cable courtroom series “Suits.” (Yes, the one that starred the future Duchess of Sussex.) And when you have celebrities doing commercials for spirits brands in which they have a stake (does a certain high-flying gin ring a bell?), you can bet there’s going to be a concept that requires deft timing, sly line delivery and, in the case of Bear Fight Whiskey, an ornery bruiser of a guy in a bear suit.

Mixing them all up in a giddy way was the task for Brian and his O Positive production team (which featured Academy Award-winning DP Janusz Kaminksi) when it came time to shoot the launch spot for the ‘What’s Your Bear Fight?’ campaign. The spot stars Macht and a not-that-good-at-taking-direction guy named ‘Frank’ wearing a bear suit that features a truly hilarious set of choppers. The bear is being directed, with little success, to fight with Macht, and the results are, like the teeth, hilarious.

The Howler reached out to the director to find out what went into making this laugh-out-loud bit of brand messaging. Here’s what he had to say:

Why do you think seeing people in bear suits is almost always funny?

Brian: Wait, a bear suit has been done before?

The physical comedy of the guy in the bear suit helps make this work. What were you looking for in casting this part? And for the actor who played the bear, there’s no ability to play off facial expressions. What was key to making the bear so unbearable? 

Brian: The bear role was actually played by an amazing stunt man, Vladimir Tevlovski. He’s not a comedic actor by trade, which worked to our advantage since his role as the director’s brother-in-law called for him to be in a bit over his head. His foreign accent and physical difficulty in a bear suit only helped. 

Timing is everything in comedy. (Just ask Jack Benny.) Who edited this spot? And how closely do you work with the editor to make sure all of the gags flow perfectly? 

Brian: Indeed. As a matter of fact, we tried to get Jack Benny to edit, but he was unavailable so we went with a frequent collaborator and a master of comedic timing, Ryan Steele at MackCut. He’s one of the best and brought so much to this project. 

The bit with the bear up on the lighting grid is inspired. Who came up with that? What was the key to making it work visually? 

Brian: As you know, the creatives on this are all advertising legends, so there was no shortage of funny ideas. After the core, hilarious idea of the bear who doesn’t take direction well causing harm to the spokesman - Gabriel Macht - much of the script development became about escalating the story for multiple beats of the bear messing up. We sort of engineered the story around the tackle. We asked ourselves, what beats could build to the big tackle and post tackle? We covered takes where the bear actually fell down onto Gabriel, but in the end we chose the take where the bear remained above. Gabriel’s defeated performance and the bear’s impending doom were just too funny. 

We’ve all seen depictions of smilingly callous film directors (like the one in this spot) before. As a director yourself, how do you direct the actor playing the director? What ‘inside baseball’ tips did you give him?

Brian: Dan O’Brien (the director) and I have worked together many, many times, so I trusted him when he promised that his wonderfully accurate portrayal of a frazzled, annoyed, ornery director who doesn’t know how to get what he wants was in no way, shape or form based on me. 

What was it like working with Gabriel? What role did he play in making this succeed as a genuinely funny bit of advertising?

Brian: Gabriel was such a blast to work with. As everyone knows, his acting chops are fantastic but he also collaborated a great deal on the script with us. And we improvised a good amount of the dialogue on set.

Have you tried the Bear Fight hooch yourself? How is it? 

Brian: Smooth and in the groove.

Client: Bear Fight

Agency:  Supernova
Creative Directors: Gabriel Macht, Dan Kelleher, Eric Silver
Executive Producers: Dave Evans, Chris Rocco

Production Company: O Positive
Director: Brian Billow
Executive Producers: Ralph Laucella, Marc Grill, Ken Licata
Director of Photography: Janusz Kaminski
Line Producer : Grayson Bithell 

Editorial Co.: MackCut
Editor : Ryan Steele 
Asst. Editor: Devon Flint